The field of art to which the invention appertains is the prevention of wear and corrosion of steel surfaces.
Articles of steel, unless specially compounded to be non-corroding or protected physically by external means, tend to corrode upon exposure to atmospheric conditions, and especially so under the combined action of atmospheric oxygen, moisture, and other chemical reagents present in the environment. By way of illustration, but without any limitation of the invention thereto, there may be mentioned automobile parts which are exposed to atmospheric conditions and water, salt, road debris, rock dust and the like, as a result of which they readily become corroded and may thereby become so reduced and weakened in strength as to be incapable of standing up to required dynamic stresses. The useful life of the automobile parts is thus reduced, and the weakening may give rise to dangers of breakage.
In order to overcome this disadvantage it has already been proposed to provide, on steel articles, a corrosion resistant coating of organic material, but hitherto it has not been possible to ensure that the organic coating will remain in position for an adequate length of time, and the coatings tend to separate from the steel article under the effects of the corroding atmosphere and the dynamic stresses present. Furthermore, the organic coatings suggested to date have not had anything like the wear resistance and mechanical strength of the underlying steel surface. Additionally, it was necessary to carry out expensive metal finishing processes on the coated article to make it frictionless and assure a long working life.